With a growing number of computers, data networks communicate an increasing amount of data. Many electronic devices now carry out network communications. For example, many vehicles now communicate information relating to the vehicle to a remote facility using available cellular network capabilities. This information may be stored, analyzed, and/or processed by the remote facility. Additionally, it may be desirable to generate and/or send a message in response to a message received from the vehicle.
In some instances, it is desirable to process messages in the order in which they were generated and/or sent. Recipients may not be able to process the messages based on the order of receipt at the remote facility since the messages may arrive in a different order than which they were sent and/or generated. For example, a message sent over a cellular network may be lost and need to be resent. Messages generated after the lost message may be received before the resent lost message. In another example, a first message may be sent via a first cell tower and a second message may be sent via a second cell tower. If the first cell tower experienced a heavy load at that time, while the second cell tower did not, the second message may arrive first. Processing messages based on when the remote facility received them may result in processing them out of an intended order. This problem is exacerbated when receiving a very large number of messages in a small window of time.